Topaz crashes airline loyalty awards!

Topaz, Irelands largest fuel and convenience retailer has become the first ever non-travel winner of a major international Loyalty Award.

The company was presented with the award for its Play or Park* loyalty programme at the Airline Business/Global Flight Loyalty 2014 conference in Amsterdam earlier this week.

The travel industry, most notably airlines and hotels are the fore-runners and pioneers of Loyalty programmes, so to be the first non-travel brand to be recognised in these awards is a tremendous achievement. Topaz won the coveted award of Best Customer Relationship Management. The judges said the companys brave decision to opt for a loyalty game as opposed to a traditional earn and burn programme had been rewarded with tremendous results.

Topaz was represented at the awards by Loyalty Manager Laura Murphy and Leanne Papaioannou MD of Chilli Pepper Marketing who worked with Topaz on the development of Play or Park.

Ms Murphy said the clear message from research was that customers wanted something that was fun, different and interactive.

We were the first brand in Europe to use an ongoing gaming mechanic as the central pillar of our loyalty programme and it is great to have our innovative approach and the commercial success of Play or Park recognised with this prestigious award.
Play or Park has only been up and running for a year but already we have signed up over 220,000 registered players. It has enabled us to deepen our engagement with our customers, be it at the point of sale or on social media and to build brand loyalty organically Ms Murphy said.

The awards, now in their sixth year, are judged by a panel of leading loyalty management specialists and presented every year at the Loyalty event. Qantas, Delta, Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific, SAS and Accor Hotel Group were among the many companies present at the event.